By Max Lane
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has called the offer of Indonesian President Habibie of special status for East Timor a significant policy change. This sentiment was echoed by Senator Robert Hill in the Senate on June 24. The Sydney Morning Herald on June 22 described the offer as a dramatic change.
What exactly is Habibie's offer? In return for both the East Timorese resistance and the United Nations accepting East Timor as a province of Indonesia, the military-backed regime will grant special status and free Xanana Gusmao and other East Timorese prisoners. In other words, if the East Timorese resistance surrenders, the regime will stop its repression.
This is exactly the same policy Suharto implemented: surrender and accept integration into Indonesia, and all will be forgiven.
Of course, the East Timorese resistance has rejected the offer. Both Xanana Gusmao in prison and student leaders in East Timor have demanded a referendum on self-determination as soon as possible. Jose Ramos Horta also called the offer totally unacceptable.
Even Bishop Belo has also stated that any special status or autonomy proposal must be a transitional phase to an act of self-determination.
Divide and conquer
Habibie's current role in the Suharto-Wiranto regime is to buy time by sprinkling seeming concessions and reform rhetoric, trying to divide the Indonesia democratic opposition and the East Timorese resistance.The regime hopes to tempt any collaborationist elements in the East Timorese civil service into splitting from the resistance position by offering to discuss degrees of autonomy â outside of the areas of defence, security, foreign affairs and finances.
According to the underground East Timorese student organisation Renetil, the Indonesian-appointed governor of East Timor, Abilio Osorio Soares, on June 22 in Dili mobilised traditional figures to support autonomy for the territory. The governor secretly contacted several traditional leaders to persuade them to support his proposal.
Soares is reported to have prepared a document to be signed by the traditional leaders on behalf of the East Timorese people, affirming their preference for autonomy under Indonesian rule. However, Soares' views were contradicted by the vast majority of people attending a public meeting that the governor organised.
The ultimate purpose of Habibie's offer is to win acceptance of East Timor's status as a province of Indonesia.
Repression resumes
While Habibie parades his grandchildren to the ABC, tells the foreign media he is prepared to be criticised, offers surrender to East Timor and receives favourable foreign media coverage, the regime resorts more and more to traditional repressive means, while backtracking on earlier promises of reform or anti-corruption activities.On June 21, large numbers of troops and tanks were used to blockade the University of Indonesia campus to prevent a rally of more than 12,000 workers. Troops were used to close down the Student Command Post for People's Struggle, taking away the marquee that had been used by students as their meeting place since May 20. In a totally illegal act, soldiers decided who was and wasn't allowed to enter the campus.
A message sent to Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) by the Workers Committee for Reform Actions (KOBAR) stated that in the districts where workers were assembling, the troops attacked with batons and electric prods. Several workers were injured.
The KOBAR action was demanding a 100% increase in wages, lowering of prices, the freeing of labour leader Dita Sari, an end to discrimination against women workers, an end to corruption and the opening up of corporate accounts to be examined by workers.
Two days later, the Jakarta military commander threatened severe action against similar protest actions. On June 24, the Indonesian Prosperity for Workers Union (SBSI) held a protest involving several hundred workers. This action was also blocked by soldiers mobilised outside the SBSI office.
Return of Suhartoism
These uses of military force against peacefully protesting workers are in line with the threats made by the military in a series of statements beginning when Habibie was sworn in on May 21.On that day, Indonesian TV viewers witnessed the unheard of event of the commander in chief of the armed forces, General Wiranto, immediately moving to the microphone and announcing that the armed forces supported the Habibie government and would also stand by to protect all former presidents. Suharto is the only former president.
In more recent statements, Wiranto and ex-generals in the Habibie cabinet have threatened that the military would move against anybody violating the bounds of reform.
There are increasing signs of attempts to prepare the rehabilitation of Suharto. Firstly, the attorney general, Atmonegoro, a cabinet minister, was suddenly sacked and replaced by a senior military lawyer, Major General Muhammad Ghalib. It is rumoured that this move was initiated on the request of Suharto after the attorney general's department quizzed a close Suharto associate and former cabinet secretary, Moerdiono, about various business dealings.
Soon afterwards, armed forces headquarters announced that it would provide lawyers to represent Suharto in any cases brought against him.
It recent days, banners have started to appear on major streets echoing the armed forces' order that the hounding of Suharto should end â otherwise society will face violence.
Death squads, kidnapping, prisoners
Another backtracking concerns political prisoners. The regime continue to keep key East Timorese and Indonesian mass movement leaders in prison. Budiman Sujatmiko, chairperson of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), Dita Sari, chair of the Indonesian Centre for Workers' Struggle (PPBI), Ignatius Pranowo, secretary general of PPBI, Wilson, secretary general of Indonesians in Solidarity with the Maubere People, and several other PRD leaders as well as Xanana Gusmao and other East Timorese leaders are still in prison.So are several members of the Indonesian Communist Party who were arrested in 1965 and are now very old and ill. While the regime says it will release more prisoners, it is likely they will be those whose sentences are almost over anyway.
On June 24, the minister of justice, Muladi, told the press after meeting with Major General Ghalib that former political prisoners should exercise a sense of national responsibility. If former prisoners break the law, he said, they can be arrested again.
Neither has there been any movement on the question of the fate of at least 25 political activists who were kidnapped over the last few months. They include two central activists from the National Committee for Democratic Struggle (KNPD).
In Solo, the Watchpost for Victims of the Reform Process reported that at least 15 Solo activists had gone missing since May 13. Some went missing during the unrest of May 13-14.
Among those whose bodies have been found was Leonardus Nugroho Iskandar, nicknamed Gilang. Gilang was reported missing on May 21 and found dead on May 23. Gilang was involved in Students in Solidarity with Democracy in Indonesia (SMID). He died from a stab wound in the chest that pierced his lung.
Gilang's body was brought to a student activist command post, and he was buried on June 6. More than 50,000 people participated in the ceremony.
The people's power movement has carved out more space in the existing media by making reform a legitimate topic for debate and discussion. However, the new minister for information, General Yunus Yofiah â the officer in charge of the Balibo killings of 1975 â has increasingly backed away from any commitment to lift the bans on publications such as Tempo, Detik, Editor and Suara Harapan.
While one repressive law has been lifted, the law giving the regime the right to withdraw a publishing licence remains untouched.